Does SMU shut down the boulevard before kickoff?

[sbsmith]

Ole Miss doesn't close the Grove during games. "Tailgating" is only stopped at around midnight after a game. There is always a sizable number of people who never go to the stadium but the total number of people tends to track pretty closely with the opponent - last week against Troy there wasn't a large number in the stadium or the Grove (attendance was only about 52,000). This coming weekend against Missouri, there will probably be 61,000 in the stadium and around 70,000 total people on campus.

Shutting down the Boulevard at some predetermined time before kickoff isn't going to put any more butts in seats... if anything, it would mean less people showing up at the Boulevard at all.

Getting a big crowd out for the tailgate party means we're part way there in terms of getting people to the game. The next step is doing what it takes to get them into the stadium and, all other things aside, that starts with scheduling games against interesting opponents that won't fill our stadium with their fans and... yeah... winning games.

This guy gets it.

[Grant Carter]

Who are the interesting opponents that won't fill our stadium with their fans?

[RebStang]

Who are the interesting opponents that won't fill our stadium with their fans?

Think BCS conference teams from outside the state of Texas.

If I were in charge of scheduling:

1. One paycheck game a season on the schedule. Go play Ohio State at the Horseshoe or Florida in the Swamp and get a nice check for it.

2. TCU.

3. One lower level home game. This could be an FCS team or a lower level FBS program (Idaho comes to mind, for example).

4. Some form of game against a mid-level/lower-level BCS conference team. We probably don't get a straight home and home against Stanford, for example, but they would probably take a 3:1 deal. Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, etc would likely take home and home deals but also pursue deals with teams like Utah, Arizona, Iowas, Mississippi State, etc.

As attendance and season ticket sales grow, you can drop the paycheck game. My rationale is that I see no long term benefit to the program whatsoever from playing Texas Tech or Texas A&M at home. Yes, we get a sellout... and 30,000 of their fans in our stadium. That only gives their fans in the DFW area an easier trip to see their team play and does nothing to help grow our fanbase locally.